Rule of the Clan Radio Interviews

I’ve really enjoyed speaking on the radio about The Rule of the Clan over the past few months. The interviewers have been really sharp and insightful, and it’s been great to have the chance to talk with readers well outside university circles.

I’ve posted links to the interviews as they were broadcast, but I’ve just learned how to embed audio files from external sites into WordPress (better late than never!). And so for ease of use, I’ll make them available again here, all in one place. To listen, just click on one of the audio players below.

Unfortunately, my hour-long interview with The Kathleen Dunn Show on Wisconsin Public Radio can’t be embedded into WordPress. If you’d like to listen, click here for the audio file. And if you’d like to watch a lecture I gave at BYU in 2012 about the book’s national security implications, click here.

I’ve also held an online interview Deven Desai of the blog Concurring Opinions: here.

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This is just great and so timely bc, of course, I want you to be a guest on Trading Fours. So many questions to ask, my mind is on fire in anticipation of the discussion bc you must say “yes.” Implementing some strategic changes to the program now thanks to some very smart, insightful comments from a listener!🙂 In touch soon… knee deep in memorial preparations….

I was fortunate enough to get to ask you a question during your Kris Boyd Interview. It’s a monumental subject and I remember feeling enthralled by the discussion ya’ll were having. I felt impelled to order your book and it has been a fascinating read thus far. What a topic especially for the times we live in.

Thanks so much for getting in touch–and for your kind words. I’m really glad that you’re enjoying my book. If you’d like, please do get in touch once you’re through and let me know your thoughts as an aspiring lawyer (or otherwise). In the meantime, I’m looking forward to listening to the interview again and hearing your call-in comments. Cheers, Mark

Thanks for your comment, spinoozlw. This post was dedicated to radio interviews and podcasts; it was meant to provide access to all my recorded interviews in one simple place. I plan in time to publish a similar post collecting all written reviews of the book, but I want to wait a little while before I do. For now, there are a number of reviews of The Rule of the Clan that I haven’t flagged on my blog in individual posts, in part because I’m trying to fill the blog more reliably with content from my current project. As it happens, I’ve posted the review to two of my Facebook pages and Tweeted it multiple times. I’ll let you know once I publish the post with links to all previous reviews, and in the meantime I hope you’ll read and enjoy the book. Feel free to get in touch with me directly once you do and let me know what you think.

It’s not enough to demonstrate, though, that a system of law is superior to a system based on status when it comes to guaranteeing rights. The key point you hit on clans is that they provide emotional security to their members in that their members have a place, a guaranteed place, in the world. Too many people in America don’t have that. If we don’t find a way to provide them one, then the abstract reality of a strong government being what guarantees individual rights is going to be sacrificed to their need for emotional security in a very very confusing world. There has to be a balance, a place where we can apply clan rule in this nation in a way that really connects people, because right now, people see all government as far distant, unconcerned and unknowing (except for spying on us) of the people it rules.

Some sort of happy medium has to be found or the whole shebang collapses.

Great work. Really enjoyed it, will recommend to all i know and use it as fodder on the political board…:-)

And hello in return! Thanks for being in touch–and thanks for your kind words about my book. I agree completely. Unless the liberal state is strong enough and dedicated to advancing substantive principles of individual autonomy, liberal societies will be threatened by the rule of the clan in a whole variety of guises. At the same time, unless liberal society finds a way, through a combination of government action and civil society institutions, to provide the benefits that clan societies afford so well then–then, as you say, the whole shebang collapses. Liberalism falls into a hollow core.

And thanks for your book recommendation. I’m grateful for it, and I’ll take a look. Interestingly, I’ve received a number of comments over the past week calling my attention to the culture of professional sports, both in the U.S. and in Europe–especially European soccer. I confess that this is something I wish I had talked about in the book, for instance in chapter two. Ah, well, for a future article!